Paul McCartney "All The Best! (USA, Capitol Records/Parlophone, CDP 7 48287 2)"

All the Best! is the second official compilation album of Paul McCartney's music, after 1978's Wings Greatest. It was released in 1987 on Capitol Records and Parlophone Records.

The album contains tracks from the beginning of his solo career in 1970 up to (on editions outside the United States) the newly recorded "Once Upon a Long Ago". The American version has a different track listing, reflecting the popularity of particular songs there. Originally the album was to include the unreleased London Town track "Waterspout"; there are LP slicks that feature it as the opening track on side two, as well as a cartoon icon, but the song was omitted at the last minute.

Editions outside the United States have 20 tracks on the vinyl version and 17 on CD; the CD omits "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Goodnight Tonight", and "With A Little Luck". The American edition has 17 tracks on both vinyl and CD, and omits "Pipes of Peace", "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Once Upon A Long Ago", "We All Stand Together", and "Mull of Kintyre", but adds "Junior's Farm" and "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey". It also substitutes the studio version of "Coming Up" with an edit of the live version, and has a shorter version of "With A Little Luck".

Originally, McCartney wanted to release an outtakes album called Cold Cuts, on which he had been working for over ten years. But his manager recommended that releasing a best-of compilation would have been a better idea. So when All the Best! was released the Cold Cuts album was permanently abandoned.

All the Best! was a commercial success in the UK, where it reached number 2 (having been kept off the top position by George Michael's debut solo album, Faith). In America, the compilation peaked at number 62, although it was eventually certified double platinum there.

Tracklist:

1. Paul McCartney & Wings – Band On The Run 
2. Paul McCartney & Wings – Jet 
3. Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder – Ebony And Ivory
4. Wings – Listen To What The Man Said 
5. Paul McCartney – No More Lonely Nights
6. Wings – Silly Love Songs
7. Wings – Let 'Em In
8. Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson – Say, Say, Say
9. Paul McCartney & Wings – Live And Let Die
10. Paul McCartney – Another Day
11. Wings – C Moon
12. Paul McCartney & Wings – Junior's Farm
13. Paul & Linda McCartney – Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey
14. Paul McCartney – Coming Up (Live At Glasgow)
15. Wings – Goodnight Tonight
16. Wings – With A Little Luck
17. Paul McCartney & Wings – My Love

Issued in a standard jewel case with black CD tray and a 20-page booklet with lyrics, photos and credits.

Paul McCartney "Give My Regards To Broad Street (1993 Reissue, Remastered, The Paul McCartney Collection, UK, Parlophone, 777 7 89268 2 5)"

Give My Regards to Broad Street is the fifth solo studio album by Paul McCartney and the soundtrack to the film of the same name. It features covers of Beatles' songs, Wings and solo tracks by McCartney, as well as a few new songs. The album reached number 1 on the UK chart. The lead single, "No More Lonely Nights", was BAFTA and Golden Globe Award nominated. It was also to be his final album to be released under Columbia Records, which had been his US label for over five years.

The majority of the album is a retrospective – sequenced in the order of the songs' appearance in the film – which features re-interpretations of many of Paul McCartney's past classics of the Beatles and Wings: "Good Day Sunshine", "Yesterday", "Here, There and Everywhere", "Silly Love Songs" , "For No One", "Eleanor Rigby" and "The Long and Winding Road". There were also interpretations of songs from McCartney's more recent albums; "Ballroom Dancing" and "Wanderlust" from Tug of War and "So Bad" from Pipes of Peace. Besides "No More Lonely Nights" (also heard in a dance version), the only previously-unheard tracks were "Not Such a Bad Boy", "No Values" and a symphonic extension of "Eleanor Rigby" entitled "Eleanor's Dream". The album running time was so long that its vinyl release had edited versions of the songs. The cassette and the later CD edition preserved the tracks' full lengths, while the CD went one further by including a bonus 1940s-styled piece called "Goodnight Princess". The Beatles cover versions are dedicated to McCartney's fellow Beatle John Lennon, who had been killed four years earlier.

Preceded by "No More Lonely Nights (Ballad)", a worldwide Top 10 hit featuring guitar work by David Gilmour, Give My Regards to Broad Street entered the UK charts at number 1 and was certified platinum, while also going gold with a number 21 peak in the United States (where it sold and charted under expectations). It would also mark the end of McCartney's association with Columbia Records in the US, which began in 1979 with the final Wings album Back to the Egg. McCartney would re-sign with EMI Records worldwide (where he remained until 2007) with his Columbia output reverting to his new – and original – label in the US, Capitol Records.

Simultaneously with the film's premiere in November, McCartney's Rupert Bear recording, "We All Stand Together", started back in 1980 and credited to "Paul McCartney and the Frog Chorus", was released and became a hit single in the UK, reaching number 3. The accompanying animated film was shown in cinemas immediately preceding the main feature that was Give My Regards to Broad Street.

The soundtrack's original release was on Columbia Records in 1984 in North America. It was remastered in 1993 and reissued on CD as part of The Paul McCartney Collection series with two extended dance mixes of "No More Lonely Nights (playout version)" as bonus tracks.

Tracklist:

1. "No More Lonely Nights" (ballad) 5:13
2. "Good Day Sunshine" / "Corridor Music" 2:33
3. "Yesterday" 1:43
4. "Here, There and Everywhere" 1:43
5. "Wanderlust" 4:07
6. "Ballroom Dancing" 4:51
7. "Silly Love Songs" / "Silly Love Songs" (reprise) 5:27
8. "Not Such a Bad Boy" 3:29
9. "So Bad" 3:25
10. "No Values" 4:12
11. "No More Lonely Nights" (ballad reprise) / "For No One" 2:12
12. "Eleanor Rigby" / "Eleanor's Dream" 9:10
13. "The Long and Winding Road" 3:57
14. "No More Lonely Nights" (playout version) 5:03
15. "Goodnight Princess" 3:58

1993 bonus tracks (The Paul McCartney Collection)

1. "No More Lonely Nights" (extended version) 8:11
2. "No More Lonely Nights" (special dance mix) 4:21

Recording information:

George Martin – producer

Geoff Emerick – engineer

Jon Kelly – engineer

Stuart Breed – engineer

Jon Jacobs – assistant engineer

Roger Huggett – sleeve artwork

Annie Carlton – sleeve design

Sandra Leamon – sleeve design

John Pasche – sleeve design

Geoff Halpin – cover lettering

Terry O'Neill – cover photography, inner sleeve photography

David Dagley – additional sleeve photography

Paul McCartney "Pipes Of Peace (1993 Reissue, Remastered, The Paul McCartney Collection, UK, Parlophone, 0777 7 89267 2 6)"

Pipes of Peace is the fourth solo studio album by the English singer-songwriter Paul McCartney. It was released on 31 October 1983. As the follow-up to the popular Tug of War, the album came close to matching the commercial success of its predecessor in Britain but peaked only at number 15 on America's Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart. While Pipes of Peace was the source of international hit singles such as "Say Say Say" (recorded with Michael Jackson) and the title track, the critical response to the album was less favourable than that afforded to Tug of War.

Many of the songs released on Pipes of Peace were recorded during the 1981 sessions for Tug of War, with "Pipes of Peace", "The Other Me", "So Bad", "Tug of Peace" and "Through Our Love" being recorded afterwards, in September–October 1982. Consequently, the album has many things in common with its predecessor: it was produced by George Martin; it featured two collaborations with the same artist (this time with Michael Jackson – the Tug of War collaborations are with Stevie Wonder); and it continued McCartney's alliance in the studio with Ringo Starr and with 10cc guitarist Eric Stewart. It also contains his last session work with Wings guitarist Denny Laine. By November, McCartney would start shooting his self-written motion picture Give My Regards to Broad Street – co-starring his wife Linda, Starr and Tracey Ullman – which would take up most of his time throughout 1983. Due to the filming commitments (and to allow a reasonable lapse of time between his new album and Tug of War), the release of Pipes of Peace was delayed until October.

Unlike Tug of War, the album features an electro-tinged sound. On the track "Tug of Peace", McCartney blended the title song to Tug of War with that of the new album. In a retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described the mix as "an almost-electro collage that twists the songs into McCartney II territory".

McCartney spent much of his energies finishing and preparing Give My Regards to Broad Street for release in the autumn of 1984.

In 1983, Pipes of Peace made its debut on CD on Columbia Records. In 1993, the album was remastered and reissued on CD as part of The Paul McCartney Collection. Three bonus tracks were included on the latter release: the previously unreleased "Twice in a Lifetime" (the title song of the 1985 film of the same name); his 1984 hit from the Rupert Bear project, "We All Stand Together"; and "Simple as That", released in 1986 on the charity album The Anti-Heroin Project – It's a Live-In World.

The album was reissued in remastered form in 2015 as part of the ongoing Paul McCartney Archive Collection series of releases. The version with "enhanced packaging" contains three discs: the remastered album itself, a bonus audio disc containing mostly demo versions of the songs found on the first disc, and a disc with a film. The reissue was accompanied by the Record Store Day exclusive single "Say Say Say (2015 Remix)".

"Say Say Say" was released as the album's lead single in October 1983. A duet with Michael Jackson, it reached number 2 in the UK and number 1 in the US, where it remained for six weeks through to early in 1984. Pipes of Peace peaked at number 4 in the UK and number 15 in the US. Following "Say Say Say", the album's title track became a UK number 1, while in the US, the flipside "So Bad" hit number 23.

Critical reaction was less positive than that which greeted Tug of War, many feeling that Pipes of Peace was a weaker execution of its predecessor's formula. In addition, according to McCartney biographer Howard Sounes, the album's commercial reception was "slightly disappointing, considering the quality of the work".

Reviewing the album for the NME, Penny Reel described Pipes of Peace as "A dull, tired and empty collection of quasi-funk and gooey rock arrangements ... with McCartney cooing platitudinous sentiments on a set of lyrics seemingly made up on the spur of the moment." Reel opined that the "one decent moment" was the title track, which he found to be "a Beatlish soiree surely destined as a Christmas single", before concluding: "Even here, however, a note of insincerity in the vocal finally defeats the lyric's objective."

Sounes views Pipes of Peace and its predecessor as "abounding with well-crafted tunes" that almost match the standard of McCartney's work with the Beatles; yet, he adds, the two albums "must be marked down for a surfeit of love ballads with lamentable lyrics". Reviewing the 2015 reissue of Pipes of Peace, for Pitchfork, Ron Hart notes that, at the time of release, "Some critics derided McCartney for aging gracelessly", yet "a good listen to the album today reveals some ways it was ahead of its time." Hart writes of the song "Tug of Peace": "an early, primitive version of a mash-up that brought together the title cuts of these underappreciated albums. The blend is clunky, but it foreshadows his electronic music work as the Fireman and on Liverpool Sound Collage."

By contrast, Jeff Strowe of PopMatters considers that the album "presents McCartney at his most regrettable", and views "Pipes of Peace" and "Tug of Peace" as, respectively, a "woefully underdeveloped title track" and a "dreadful mashup". Strowe writes more favourably of "Say Say Say", however, describing it as "catchy in that pure '80s manner", and highlights "Sweetest Little Show" and "Average Person" as "a nice one-two punch of refreshing creativity that give the proceedings a much needed spark of interest and vitality".

Track listing

All songs written by Paul McCartney, except where noted.

1. "Pipes of Peace" 3:56
2. "Say Say Say"     Paul McCartney/Michael Jackson  3:55
3. "The Other Me" 3:58
4. "Keep Under Cover" 3:05
5. "So Bad" 3:20
6. "The Man"  Paul McCartney/Michael Jackson  3:55
7. "Sweetest Little Show" 2:54
8. "Average Person" 4:33
9. "Hey Hey" Paul McCartney/Stanley Clarke  2:54
10. "Tug of Peace" 2:54
11. "Through Our Love" 3:28

Additional tracks on the 1993 CD reissue

1. "Twice in a Lifetime" 3:02
2. "We All Stand Together" 4:25
3. "Simple as That" 4:15

Track 12 - Paul McCartney's theme song for the same-name Gene Hackman/Ann-Margret film of 1985.

Otherwise unreleased until now.

Track 13 - Paul McCartney's main theme song for Rupert And The Frog Song, his animated short-feature and best-selling video. Recorded in 1980, the song was kept under wraps until 1984 and then soared to number three in Britain.

Track 14 - Previously available on a 1986 various artists charity album The Anti-Heroin Project - It's A Live-In World.

Please note there will be a 10 second break between original and bonus tracks.

Recording information:

George Martin – producer

Geoff Emerick – engineer

Jon Jacobs – assistant engineer

Mike Stavrou – assistant engineer

Alex Wharton – mastering

Clive Barker – artwork (chrome sculpture)

Vincent van Gogh – artwork (chair and pipe)

YES – creative direction, design

Linda McCartney – cover photography

Paul McCartney "Tug Of War (1993 Reissue, Remastered, UK, MPL/Parlophone, 0777 7 89266 2 7)"

Tug of War is the third solo studio album by the English musician Paul McCartney, released on 26 April 1982. It is his 11th album overall following the break up of the Beatles in 1970, his first album released after the dissolution of his band Wings the previous year, and his first album following the murder of his former songwriting partner John Lennon. The cover features an abstract oil painting by the artist Brian Clarke, a frequent McCartney collaborator, incorporating an overpainted transparency of a portrait of Paul taken by Linda McCartney.

Tug of War was produced by former Beatles producer George Martin and was a number-one hit in many countries, selling over one million copies in the United States in the year of its release. Some critics hailed it as a 'return to form' for McCartney, with Far Out declaring it his strongest work in 2022. The 2015 re-release, in a remastered deluxe edition, received a nomination for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.

Following the release of the solo album McCartney II, McCartney's band Wings regrouped in July and October 1980 to rehearse several songs which later appeared on Tug of War and Pipes of Peace. Feeling the need for direction, McCartney called upon his former producer, George Martin, to begin recording a song written for the animated Rupert Bear character (to which McCartney acquired the film rights in 1970), titled "We All Stand Together", among others. The productive sessions continued until 9 December, the morning McCartney woke up to learn that his former songwriting partner and fellow ex-Beatle, John Lennon, had been murdered in New York City the previous night. Abandoning that day's session (in which he and Denny Laine were recording future B-side "Rainclouds") part-way through, both Martin and McCartney felt it was best to leave the project for the time being and start anew once they were ready.

In February 1981, two months after Lennon's death, McCartney resumed the sessions, recording that month with Stevie Wonder, Stanley Clarke, Carl Perkins and Ringo Starr, and laying down several songs in the process. The sessions were held at AIR Studios in Montserrat, in the Caribbean, and lasted from 3 February to 2 March, ending with "Ebony and Ivory" and "What's That You're Doing", two songs featuring Stevie Wonder. 10cc guitarist Eric Stewart also became a frequent collaborator of McCartney during this period. Further sessions were undertaken that summer at Martin's AIR Studios in Oxford Street, London. The sessions were so productive that several resulting tracks were held over for McCartney's next album, Pipes of Peace, which followed in 1983. The rest of 1981 was spent in a quiet fashion, with McCartney and Martin giving the finishing touches to the album.

In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, music critic Stephen Holden hailed Tug of War as "the masterpiece everyone has always known Paul McCartney could make", and particularly admired its vivid music and consistent songwriting. In The Boston Phoenix, M. Howell felt that the album "is bouncy, joyful, sweet and melodic—things we expect from Paul McCartney. It's also frightened and fierce—things he’s not supposed to be. To say that Tug of War is a far better record than McCartney’s ever made is to slight it—Tug of War goes beyond anything that McCartney ever indicated he was capable of." Robert Palmer was less enthusiastic in his review for The New York Times, and found the album "exquisitely crafted though lyrically flawed", as he thought McCartney's lyrics were often "clichéd or mawkish", but that the album "at its best, is as finely crafted as his work with the Beatles".

In March 1982, McCartney's duet with Stevie Wonder, "Ebony and Ivory", was released to considerable commercial success, reaching number one in many countries. Tug of War followed in April, and similarly became a worldwide number one. The follow-up single, "Take It Away", reached the top ten in the United States. The album restored McCartney's critical reputation after what was viewed as a lean period for him. Tug of War was nominated for the "Album of the Year" Grammy in 1983. Wingspan author Mark Lewisohn thought it was a better album than Band on the Run.

The album was issued in the US on compact disc on 29 February 1984. In 1993, Tug of War was remastered and re-issued on CD as part of The Paul McCartney Collection series. There were no bonus tracks: "Rainclouds" and "I'll Give You a Ring", B-sides of "Ebony and Ivory" and "Take It Away", respectively, were omitted. In 2007, Tug of War was remastered and re-released on the iTunes Store adding a solo version of "Ebony and Ivory".

A further reissue of Tug of War was released on 2 October 2015, as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection. This edition included a remixed version of the album, along with the original mix, and a series of videos.

Track listing

All songs were written by Paul McCartney, except "What's That You're Doing?" co-written by Stevie Wonder.

1. "Tug of War" – 4:22
2. "Take It Away" – 4:14
3. "Somebody Who Cares" – 3:19
4. "What's That You're Doing?" (with Stevie Wonder) – 6:19
5. "Here Today" – 2:27
6. "Ballroom Dancing" – 4:07
7. "The Pound Is Sinking" – 2:54
8. "Wanderlust" – 3:49
9. "Get It" (with Carl Perkins) – 2:29
10. "Be What You See (Link)" – 0:34
11. "Dress Me Up as a Robber" – 2:41
12. "Ebony and Ivory" (with Stevie Wonder) – 3:46

Recording information:

George Martin – producer

Geoff Emerick – engineer

Jon Jacobs – assistant engineer

Mike Stavrou – assistant engineer

Alex Wharton – mastering

Hipgnosis – cover coordination

Sinc – cover coordination

YES – creative direction, design

Brian Clarke – cover painting

Linda McCartney – photography